TORN TO PIECES BY WILD BEASTS.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 720, 6 October 1870, Page 3

TORN TO PIECES BY WILD BEASTS.

The Middletown (Missouri) " Banner," says the little village of Middletown was lately thrown into a painful £srer of excitement, on the morning of the 12th of May, by an awful catastrophe, which occurred to the band lately attached to James Bobinson and Co.'s Circus and Animal Show, and led by Professor M. C. Sexton. The management had determined to produce something novel in the way of a band chariot, and conceived the idea of mounting the band upon the colossal den of performing Numidian lions. Although repeatedly warned by Professor Sexton ftat he deemed the cage insecure and dangerous in the extreme, the manages still persisted in compelling the hand to ride upon it. As the driver endeavored to make a turn in the Street, on the morning of the accident, the leaders became entangled and threw the entire team into confusion, and he lost control of them, and becoming frightened they broke into a violent run. The fore-wheel of the Cage came in contact with a large rock with such force as to cause the braces and stanchions which supported the roof to give way, and thereby precipitating the entire band into the awful pit below. For an instant the vast crowd were paralysed with fear, but for a moment only, and then arose such ft shriek of agony as was never heard before. The awful groans of terror and agony which arose from the poor victims who were being torn and lacerated by the frightful monsters below, wereheartrendingandsickeningtoaterrible degree. Every moment some ©f the band would leap over the sides of the cage to the ground with a wild spring, and faint away upon striking the earth, so great was their terror. A hardware store which haappened to stand opposite was invaded, and pitchforks, crowbars, and long bars of iron, and in fact, every available weapon was brought into requisition. The Bide doors of the cage were quickly torn from their fastenings, and then a horrible sight was presented to view. Mingled among the brilliant uniforms of the poor unfortunates lay legs and arms torn from their sockets and half devoured, while the savage brutes glared ferociously with their sickly green colored eyes upon the crowd. Prof. Charles "White arrived at this moment, and gave orders in regard to extricating the dead and wounded—he well knowing it would be a difficult and dangerous undertaking to remove them from the infuriated monsters. Stationing men with forks and bars at every available point, he sprang fearlessly into the den amid the savage monsters, and commenced raising the wounded, and passing them outside to their friends. He had succeeded in removing the wounded, and was proceeding to gather up the remains of the lifeless, when the mammoth lion, known to showmen as old Nero, sprang with a frightful roar upon his keeper, fastening his teeth and claws in his neck and shoulders, lacerating him in a horrible manner. Prof. White made three efforts to shake the monster off,

but without avail, and gave orders to fire upon him. The content s of four of Colt's Navy's were immediately poured into the carcase of the ferocious animal, and he fell deiad; and the brave little man, notwithstanding the fearful manner in which he was wounded, never left the cage until every vestige of the dead was carefully gathered together and placed upon a sheet, preparatory to burial. It was found that three of the ten who mounted the cage a short time before Were killed outright, and four others terribly lacerated, The names of the killed are August Schoer, Conrad Ereeiz, and Charles G-remer. Coffins were procured, and an immediate buria determined upon, as the bodies were so frightfully torn and lacerated as to be unrecognisable by their most intimate friends.